Big Brother of Christmas Island (3-Day Rental)

PLEASE NOTE: THIS PRODUCT IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO CUSTOMERS RESIDING IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. ANY ORDERS FOR THIS PRODUCT THAT ARE PLACED FROM OUTSIDE AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND WILL BE CANCELLED AND REFUNDED.

PLEASE NOTE: If paying via purchase order, your 3-day rental period will begin when we approve your order. (Approvals are usually processed regularly during trading hours, but please allow up to two business days.) If paying up-front via credit card or PayPal, you will have access to stream the file in a matter of minutes, and your 3-day rental period will begin straight away.

You will receive an email (separate to your tax invoice) with a link to watch this video once your payment is received (or when we approve your purchase order).

Phosphate-rich Christmas Island rears out of the Indian Ocean only ten degrees south of the Equator. It was mined first by the British and then by the Australians. The British Phosphate Commission ran the island like a Raj outpost, exploiting cheap Asian labour and practising a form of apartheid. Gordon Bennett, a hard-drinking Englishman, came to the remote Australian territory in 1979 to become General Secretary of the Union of Christmas Island Workers. Appalled at what he found, Bennett was determined to dismantle the archaic and racist institutions on the island. The film traces attempts to crush the tiny union and shut down the mine. By the time Bennett died in 1991, he was known as 'Tai Ko Seng' which, roughly translated, means 'big brother who delivers'.

(1999, 55 mins) A Film Australia National Interest Program in association with Wildfilm Australia Pty Ltd. Developed with the assistance of ScreenWest, Western Australian Film and Television Office. Produced with the assistance of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

© National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.